Bruised and Broken, but too stubborn to give up…

This week held an important milestone for me. It took me until the age of 31 years and 8 months, but I finally took the plunge and went for it. That’s right, this week, I lost my spinning virginity. It was rather painful and I didn’t enjoy it a whole lot.

Now I’m going to be honest with you. I’m not all that keen on cycling as a general hobby or pastime. I had a bike as a child and was fine on it, however after a rather bloody disagreement between my knee, my bike wheel and a brick sticking out of a cycle path when I was around 7 or 8, my love for cycling soon fizzled out. I still have the gravel burn on my knee as a constant reminder of that fateful day. Gross but true.

During my adult life I’ve avoided bikes as much as possible, with the exception of the last couple of years where I decided I wanted to start cycling again to get fit. I do the same thing as a lot of people – you get an idea in your head of cycling everywhere, conquering the world and getting thinner at the same time. Well needless to say, my first time back in the saddle for many a year, and I completely hated it. I felt like I’d had several stiff drinks before mounting the bike. When in reality, if I’d actually had several stiff drinks I probably would have been more successful. Honestly, I was like a wobbly old drunk trying to steer the bike down my parents road to get my bearings. I thought I was doing okay until a curb suddenly appeared out of nowhere, or even worse, a car wanting to (quite rightly) get to their house without having to manoeuvre around a mad woman on a crazy fitness mission. Needless to say it wasn’t a success by any means. When people say “oh it’s just like riding a bike, you never forget how to do it”. Well, I’m afraid I’m going to have to call bullshit on that one. As I’ve grown older I seem to have lost the fearlessness that kids have, and I’m pretty much scared of everything out of my comfort zone. Riding a bike felt so unnatural for me, I felt like I was just going to fly over the handlebars any time I rolled over a pea-sized piece of gravel in the road!

Don’t get me wrong, exercise bikes I’m okay with. They still hurt like hell and you end up with all kinds of pain in the crotch area. But you can go at your own pace, in your own time. And you’re securely screwed to a very solid floor so there’s no chance of wobbling all over the place!

So this leads me to this week. My friend (naming and shaming you, Leigh Fido) sent me a text asking if I’d ever done a spin class. To which I replied “so, we’re going spinning then yes?!”.

I’d heard all sorts of things about spinning. Mainly, the fact it’s such a good workout. And part of me thought, what’s the worst that can happen?! Well, as it turns out, the absolute worst thing that could happen is I could pass out and fall off the bike in the middle of the class in front of a room of strangers. Luckily, this didn’t happen. I did however have pain in my backside and crotch region immediately from the rock hard saddle. Oh well, I thought. I’ll get used to it. I DID NOT GET USED TO IT.

The class was 45 minutes long. 45 minutes of hell on earth quite frankly. I had purposely left my watch at home so I couldn’t clock watch the entire time. But as it turns out, I probably could have done with knowing exactly how many minutes I had left to suffer.

The other people in the class (all pros at spinning of course) probably thought I was a waste of space but at the end of the day, it was my first ever class (I’m more of a Zumba girl at heart) and I kept pedalling through all but half a minute or so of the 45minutes. (It did cross my mind to get off the bike and walk out, but then the fact I’d paid £6 for the privilege was my incentive to keep going – I couldn’t afford not to!!)

When it came to the end of the class I just slid off the bike in a sweaty pile, legs jellified and head a bit spinny from the loud music and constant pedalling. But, I survived. Granted, I put in a tiny amount of effort compared to some of the other people in the class, but I felt a sense of achievement just for getting through it! I’ve also had a LOT of groin pain since the class which hasn’t been great.

I’m going to try it again – and hopefully I might actually enjoy it a little bit. To be honest if I can just not look like a beached whale compared to everybody else in the room I’ll be happy!!

Watch this space my lovely followers, maybe my next post will be to rave about all the benefits of spinning. 🤔

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